William a



(No Model.)

W. A. SPRINGER.

. SUSPBNDER BUCKLE.

No. 478,409. Patented Apr. 19, 1892.

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' vation.

Nrrnn STATES ATENT FFICE.

WILLIAM A. SPRINGER, OF DES MOINES, IOWA, ASSIGNOR TO THE DIAMOND SUSPENDER COMPANY, OF SAME PLACE.

susPENDER-BUCKLE.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 473,409, dated April 19, 1892.

Application filed July 31, 1890. Serial No. 360,590. (No model.)

To au whom t may concern.-

Be it known that I, W'ILLIAM A. SPRINGER, a citizen of the United States, residing at Des Moines, in the county of Polk and State of Iowa, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Suspender-Buckles,of which the following is a specification.

My invention relates to a suspender-buckle having a sliding toothed bar; and my invention consists in certain details of construction, which will be hereinafter fully described, and particularly pointed out in the claims.

In order that my invention may be fully understood, I will describe the same with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which- Figure I represents the buckle in front ele- Fig. II is a Vertical section through a buckle, illustrating the novel feature of the grip; and Fig. III is a view showing the buckle in use, the position of the parts when the gripbar is disengaged from the webbing being shown in dotted lines.

A represents the frame of the buckle, which is preferably made of a single piece of wire bent to form the parallel side bars d, the top bar Z2, and the bottoni bar c.

Between the side bars and the top bar of the frame is a simple right-angle bend at each corner; but between the side bars and the bottom bar are formed the offsets or double elbow-bends B. The object and effect of thus connecting the sides with the top and bottom is to make the side bars and top bar lie in one plane and the bottom bar in front of said plane, for the reason hereinafter stated.

v The buckle may be provided with a castoff hook O and a spring-tongue D, forming together the snap-hook for holding the cast-o ring. The hook is preferably formed integral with the frame by bending the wire in the proper shape, and the spring-tongue is connected by means of a sleeve d, of sheet metal, surrounding a part or all of the top of the frame, and thereby constituting a hinge. In the construction last mentioned the springtongue is held in proper relation to the hook and rendered resilient by means of the toothed bar when in its uppermost position, as will hereinafter appear.

H represents the sliding gripbar,which may 'by the Itoothed bar H.

be of any suitable and well-known form and provided with bearings h, formed around the side bars a of the frame, whereby it is free to slide from the elbow or oifset B to the upper part of the frame, where it approaches so closely to the top b, which confines the web and carries the tongue, that the webbing will be securely gripped between the sliding bar and top bar and the tongue will beA forced outward against the upper end of the hook and retained in its operative normal condition. By the term front I mean that face of the buckle which is on the outside in use, and by the term back I mean that face of the buckle which is presented next to the person in use. f

The mode of operation and the great advantages of my invention will be clearly undcrstood upon reference to Figs. II and III. The webbing is confined in front by the top bar b and bottom bar c of the frame, behind both of which it is passed, and at the back It will therefore be seen that when the bar I-I is in the `position shown it is so far removed from the bottom bar of the frame as to permit the webbing being passed through with comparative ease in an almost straight linewithout being woven back and forth between the respective parts of the grip, as is the case with those buckles heretofore used for the purpose. It will further be seen that with my construction it is only necessary to take hold of the lower end of the webbing and pull it downward relatively to the buckle in order to release it,and then by holding the grip-bar the webbing can readily be moved up and down with very little abrasion or wear of the material. On the other hand, in order to grip the material it is simply necessary to draw it upward, when the cross-bar will move upward and gradually tighten by virtue of the inclined sides until it securely binds the webbing against the top bar and 'forces the tongue out into place. In this position it is retained by the tension it receives when in use.

I do not herein claim the combination,with the buckle having the grip and cast-off hook, of the spring-tongue extending downwardly from the top bar and engaging thc cast-off hook, inasmuch as this forms the subject-mat- IOO ter of a 3o-pending application lefl by me on February 1Q, 1891, Serial No. 380,934.

I Claim as new and of my inventionl. A suspender-buckle comprising a top 5 Gross-bar and side bars in substantially the Same plane, a lower cross-bar in front of said plane, carrying the hook for the oasbol, a sliding bar on the frame, and a spring-tongue oarried by the frame and engaged with the hook, 1o substantially as set forth.

2. In a buckle, the oombinai'ion of the top bar, the bottom bar, the parallel sides conneoted to the top bar, the oilsets connecting the parallel sides with the bottom bar, the Sliding grip-bar on the parallel sides, the east-off x5 hook, and the spring-tongue engaging said hook,substantiallyas and for the purpose seb forth.

VILLIAM A. SPRINGER. Witnesses:

ANDREW ENGLE, THOMAS G. ORWIGV. 

